Geolocation-Enabled iPhone Interface

while the iPhone may be the first real mobile web device, based on a real web browser and not some stripped-down version supporting only subsets of html, css, and javascript, it still is missing one really important feature: the ability to support location-based services. if the iPhone had geolocation support, it would be much easier for service providers to build services which are tailored to the location of service consumers.

but of course there is the privacy issue: as a mobile phone user, i don't want to constantly broadcast my location to all web sites i am visiting with my iPhone. so the geolocation service should be a feature that would be under very clear user control. assuming that it would be implemented by an HTTP header field (which does not currently exist, but would not be too hard to define), the handling of geolocation information could be clearly visualized in the safari address bar:

• the current safari address bar is very minimalistic, just providing add bookmark and reload buttons:

  

• a geolocation-enabled safari could provide clear feedback on how the geolocation information is handled, providing some visualization if the request has been sent without the geolocation information:

  

• if the web site has been configured as a trusted web site, or after a tap on the globe icon, the request could be sent (or re-sent) including the geolocation information, which would be clearly indicated in the address bar as well:

  

of course, this it not as pretty as apple would undoubtedly make it (i am almost sure that their globe would be spinning and maybe even have the red dot in the actual location, maybe i should quickly get a patent for this idea...), but the important point is that the browser should always provide clear feedback about how it is handling the geolocation information. ideally, the browser would have a configurable list of trusted web sites which by default would be sent the geolocation header, while other services would get what they get now: no information about the whereabouts of the phone user. by tapping the globe, users could easily toggle between the two modes.

this behavior would somehow resemble how most browsers treat cookies today (this actually one of the very few behaviors of the iPhone safari which can be configured), which in fact are comparable in various way, because they also provide a way how servers can make clients identifiable by setting and getting cookies.

since HTTP proxies have easy access to HTTP headers, ideally all web sites using the geolocation header should use HTTPS instead of plain text HTTP, but due to the performance overhead of ssl/tls, this will probably not happen. the globe icon could also provide feedback about this, using the established lock metaphor for HTTPS, but this may be more information than most users would be able to digest.

and of course, as long as the iPhone does not provide this (currently fictitious) HTTP header, the above interface ideas and issues are more conceptual than to be expected in the next software update. but sooner or later, the ability to access the web from a truly mobile device will lead to some form of location information being exchanged between clients and servers.